Stored value, gift, or other pre-paid metered accounts associated with debits cards are well-known for providing access to goods and services. For example, gift cards may be purchased from various merchants such as Target®, Wal-Mart®, Starbucks®, Sears®, Blockbuster®, and the like. Pre-paid debit cards are also frequently purchased for telephone services. The purchase and usage of pre-paid debit cards has continued to increase in recent years to the point that the sale of pre-paid debit cards today is a multi-billion dollar industry. Pre-paid cards, such as gift cards issued by a merchant, are advantageous to the merchant because customers using them are more likely to shop the merchant and also more likely to spend beyond the initial value of the gift card. Other prepaid cards may be issued by a bank or money transfer office, and may be used like a credit card to make purchases, up to the balance maintained within the card account.
In some cases, pre-paid debit cards are printed and issued with a predetermined value and balance, and typically sold as a retail item. An example of one such a card is a pre-paid gift card which provides an individual with a set dollar amount for the purchase of goods from a particular merchant. In other cases, a gift card may be printed without a predetermined value, but when it is purchased and activated the customer pays for the amount of money to be “loaded” onto the card.
Clearinghouse arrangements have been set up to handle gift card accounts on behalf of merchants. For example, ValueLink, L.L.C., a unit of First Data Corporation, provides database services that merchants may access for activating and maintaining gift card accounts. When the card is purchased, the card is electronically read (e.g., by reading a magnetic stripe or printed bar code on the card) by the merchant to activate the account at the database. Once activated, the card is used to make purchases (redemptions) by reading the card at the time of purchase and debiting the purchase amount from the account.
Merchants typically offer gift cards for their own business. However, this does not always lead to widespread use of the cards. For example, the more locations a gift card is offered for sale (i.e., locations other than at the business location of the gift card merchant), the more likely it is that consumers will purchase cards and use them. While one merchant offering gift cards for its own business might make individual arrangements with another merchant in order to sell the other merchant's cards (in addition to its own), such arrangements would not provide the efficiencies, systems and economies of scale needed to effectively offer multiple gift cards for different merchants at a single merchant location.